Lehigh University selects Innovative's Electronic Resource Management

Press Release:
Innovative Interfaces, Inc.
[February 26, 2007]

Copyright (c) 2007 Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

Abstract: Lehigh University selected Innovative's Electronic Resource Management to maximize staff efficiency and collaboration, troubleshoot e-resource access issues for users, and increase the overall effectiveness of usage statistics. The University will implement the Innovative ERM as a stand-alone solution.

Emeryville, CA—Lehigh University has selected Innovative's Electronic Resource Management to maximize staff efficiency and collaboration, troubleshoot e-resource access issues for users, and increase the overall effectiveness of usage statistics. The University will implement the Innovative ERM as a stand-alone solution.

The Library is transitioning towards an electronic-only periodicals collection. "Our users love using e-journals and we're responding to this preference," says Director of Library Access Services Sharon Wiles-Young. "The Innovative ERM will help us centralize and manage title and package information. We will be able to clear barriers to user access more quickly and efficiently than ever before, such as cases when there is a content change or service interruption from one of our database providers. And with 16,000 e-titles to consider, the Innovative ERM will make staff management of these holdings easier by facilitating collaboration."

With so many e-journal titles, library staff need to accurately assess usage patterns to make the best collection-development decisions possible. Says Wiles-Young: "One of the reasons we chose the Innovative ERM was the ability to get a handle on statistics, including Innovative's development with the SUSHI standard." The Innovative ERM's use of SUSHI will speed transfer of resource-usage data from content vendors to libraries. Staff can easily view statistics at the package and title level, compare usage statistics with cost at-a-glance, and make scheduled transfers from multiple data providers rather than allocate staff time for a series of manual downloads.

With the Innovative ERM the Library can expand and implement the research of managing electronic resources from a capital budgeting approach as described in a paper published in The Engineering Economist (51 [4], pp. 325-346) by Tim McGeary, Senior System Specialist at Lehigh. The definition of a capital budgeting, as described in Advanced Engineering Economics by Chan S. Park and Gunter P. Sharp-Bette, is the allocation of capital to investment projects whose benefits are to be realized in the future—and it can be applied to libraries by investing in electronic resources which maximize usage.

With this selection, Lehigh University joins a number of libraries using the Innovative ERM in stand-alone configuration, including Binghamton University [SUNY], New York University, and the Library of Congress.

About Lehigh University

Located in Bethlehem, PA, Lehigh University is a private, co-educational institution with nearly 4,700 undergraduate and over 2,000 graduate students. Degrees are offered by the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Business & Economics, the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, and the College of Education, which primarily offers advanced degrees. Lehigh offers over 75 undergraduate degrees, including interdisciplinary and two-degree programs. Lehigh student population includes nearly 500 international students from 65 countries each year.

The Lehigh University Libraries house more than 1.2 million volumes, 12,000 print and electronic subscriptions, and over 100 scholarly databases. As a Government Repository, the Libraries hold 220,000 U.S. and Pennsylvania government documents. The University Libraries also include Special Collections of rare books and archived material, and a Digital Library that is releasing its 10th digital collection.

About Innovative Interfaces

For over 25 years, Innovative Interfaces has dedicated its energies to meeting the needs of libraries and the challenges of library automation. The company has fulfilled this mission with first-rate services and products such as the Millennium integrated library platform, the INN-Reach direct consortia borrowing solution, Electronic Resource Management, and the Encore discovery services platform. Today, thousands of libraries of all types in over 40 countries rely on Innovative's products, services, and support. The company is located in Emeryville, California with offices around the world.